Friendships Change
"I'm so delighted that all of my friends could make it to the spa date today!", Rarity said happily, "Well except for Rainbow Dash, but honestly I didn't think she would show up."
"Rarity!", Twilight said in a scolding tone.
"Oh come now Twilight! We all know she dislikes the spa!", Rarity said defensively.
"Then why did you ask us to come here?", Pinkie asked as she froze mid-cannon ball into a mud bath.
"Because darling this place is simply divine! Plus I had hoped Rainbow could swallow her pride and show up, for us.", Rarity said matter of factly.
"Oh, OK!", Pinkie said, and she started falling again.
Pinkie's cannonball into the mud bath sent mud flying everywhere. Her friends, as a collective group, stared at her as she reemerged from the mud, which confused Pinkie Pie.
"What?", she asked innocently.
"How did you do that?", Twilight asked with her jaw dropped.
"The same way I do this!", Pinkie said as she dove back under the surface of the mud, and reappeared out of a bowl of sponges. "I just do it."
"Okay I give up!", Twilight exasperated.
Fluttershy was happy that everypony was having a good time at the spa date, but then she noticed that Applejack seemed a little down.
"Um... Applejack? Is everything okay? If you don't mind my asking that is.", Fluttershy asked as she began to coward slightly.
"What was that darling?", Applejack asked, for she wasn't paying much attention to her friends at this time, because her mind was obviously elsewhere.
By this point in time all of her present friends had sensed that something was amiss with there farmpony friend.
"Darling is everything alright?", Rarity asked.
"Yeah you seem a little down! You need to turn that frown upside down!", Pinkie added as she did a double front flip over Applejack, landed behind her, and pulled the ends of her mouth up to make her seem like she was smiling. "See? Doesn't that feel much better?", Pinkie asked with a giggle.
Pinkie released Applejack's mouth and it promtly drooped back down into a frown.
"Applejack? We're you're friends. You can tell us anything. You know that right?", Twilight asked with a twinge of concern.
Applejack placed her head into her hooves and stifled back a tear. She looked back up at her friends and took a deep breath.
"Ah do have something on my chest Ah'd like to talk about.", Applejack said.
"Well what is it darling? Maybe we can help.", Rarity stated.
"Well, ya see, uh, Ah think... Ah think Ah'm in love with somepony, but Ah don't know what Ah should do."
"Applejack! That's wonderful! You have to tell him!", Twilight excitedly said.
"That's just it, ya see. It's not a him.", Applejack said as a blush appeared on her cheeks.
"Oh!", Fluttershy squeaked in shock, "Well... what's her name, if you don't mind my asking that is."
"It's... it's..."
One Week Later
Rainbow Dash was awesome, and she knew it. She could do anything she tried. She had everything she could ever want, except for a spot on the Wonderbolts. She had great friends, a good home, and plenty of fun things to do around Ponyville. Nope, there was nothing that she longed for. Rainbow gazed around at the world below her from the cloud that had served as her temporary bed for her afternoon nap. She rolled over to her other side to try and continue napping, but she just couldn't. She laid there and tried to think of something to do, and after some thought, she decided to visit Applejack, to see if she needed help with anything, and afterwards maybe a quick race.
She closed her eyes and dove off the cloud, allowing herself to free fall through the air for a few moments. She opened her eyes at the same time as she unfolded her impressive wings, and brought herself out of the free fall and started to gracefully glide through the air. She beat her wings a few times to gain some speed and began heading towards Sweet Apple Acres. While flying through the air she couldn't help but feel even more self pride because of the gorgeous day she had helped produce. The sun was warm and friendly, the wind blew a light autumn breeze, and very few clouds were present to impede the sun's ability of showing the day's beauty.
It didn't take her long to arrive at Sweet Apple Acres. She started eying the land like a hawk trying to spot her orange friend, Applejack, from the air. Rainbow Dash soon spotted her, she was out in the orchard gathering apples, for it was apple bucking season. Rainbow Dash landed, and she trotted up next to the earth pony.
"Hey Applejack! Want some help?"
The orange farmpony turned around and looked at her friend, with sweat on her brow.
"Sure if'in ya'll don't mind."
Rainbow Dash, of course, had no problem helping her friend, because after all, what are friends for?
After a couple of hours three entire rows of trees were finished, "Well that seems to do it for this row. Whatcha say we that a little break and have some cider?" Applejack asked her friend.
"Oh yeah! That sounds like an awesome idea to me." Rainbow Dash responded as her mouth began to water profusly, and she jumped up and floated a few feet off the ground.
The two ponies moseyed on over to the barn and Applejack said, "You wait here and I'll get the mugs and the cider."
Rainbow sat down, and as her friend exited, she started contemplating some new tricks she could perform. She began fantasizing about doing a Sonic Rainboom after a series of complicated twists and turns, but her train of thought was wrecked by a large mug of cider, that she dove into and began back stroking through. Rainbow Dash's daydream was brought to an end by Applejack reentering the barn, and in her mouth was a jug of cider and a couple of mugs.
Applejack turned to Rainbow after putting down all the contents of her mouth on a small table and said, "Now Dash, I hate to admit it, but we've run out of cider again, so I brought something that's just as good."
Rainbow just looked at her friend and asked, "What could as good as cider AJ?"
Applejack didn't respond back, but instead lifted the jug she had brought and poured some into a mug. Rainbow Dash stared intently at the liquid that was being poured from the jug and noticed something about it.
"Hey,", she said in an accussing tone, "I thought you said you guys ran out of cider?"
"Well we did, but we still have this. It is cider, but it's a different kind of cider.", Applejack explained.
"Different kind?", Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes Sugarcube, this is hard cider."
Rainbow Dash looked AJ in the eyes and asked, "So, what's so different about it?"
"Not much really, it's just that if you drink to much of it, to fast, it tends to mess with yer
head a little."
Rainbow Dash picked up the mug that Applejack had filled and took a small sip from it. She let the liquid swish around in her mouth for a few moments before slowly swallowing it.
"Well what do you think of it Sugarcube?", Applejack asked.
"I like it!", Rainbow Dash said excitedly.
"Good!", Applejack said as she grabbed the mug next to her and filled it to the brim.
Rainbow Dash watched as Applejack slammed her drink back, and poured another for herself. Applejack repeated this process a few more times and looked over to a confused Rainbow Dash and smiled slightly.
"I thought you said this stuff was to dangerous to drink fast?", Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone.
"Yeah it is.", Applejack said, "Fer the weak."
Rainbow Dash felt her competitive side fire up with this challenge. She grabbed her mug and drained it in seconds. She filled it up again and again as she emptied her mug until she caught up with Applejack.
"Ya know RD, Ah've always treasured your friendship.", Applejack said breaking the long silence between the two.
"Yeah, I treasure it too, Applejack." Rainbow Dash said with an arched eyebrow, wondering where her friend was going with this.
"And we've done some pretty amazing things together." Applejack sighed as she began looking down at the ground.
"Yeah, we have. AJ. Where are you going with this?" Rainbow Dash questioned.
"Ya see RD, sometimes Ah have these... feelings, whenever Ah think of you." Applejack said as she looked up again with a slight blush.
Rainbow Dash was petrified. 'Applejack has feelings for me, when she thinks of me?' Dash thought to herself.
"RD, Ah think Ah really like you. Maybe, Ah even like ya more than a friend should like their friend." Applejack said as she grew even redder.
"Wh...what do you mean Applejack?" was the only thing Rainbow Dash could get out even though she already knew.
"Ah... Ah think Ah'm in love you Rainbow Dash." Applejack stated as she leaned over the table and kissed Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash immediately pulled away from the kiss. Applejack was frozen in fear as she began to realize what had just happened.
"Ah'm so sorry Rainbow! Ah... Ah don't know what came over me!" Applejack stammered out.
Rainbow Dash felt the anger building up inside her at this point.
"YOU THINK I'M GAY!?" she shouted.
Applejack didn't know what to say. This wasn't suppose to happen. In her plans, they were suppose to kiss, and Rainbow Dash was suppose to come forward with her feelings just like she had. She hadn't expected Rainbow Dash to not be a lesmarian or at least biquestrial. Rainbow Dash got up and stormed over to the door of the barn. She opened it up, and was beginning to take off.
"RD! Ah'm sorry!" Applejack shouted half way in tears.
"Can it AJ! I'm going home!" Rainbow Dash said as she flew off in a huff.
She soared through the sky gaining more and more speed put more and distance between her and Applejack. Rainbow knew she had to get away from her. She needed some space to think. She decided that her house was the best place for her to go, so she turned and sped home with a rainbow in suit.
Applejack ran out of the barn and watched the rainbow trail of her friend speed away from her, "What have Ah done?", she quietly asked herself.
She turned and quietly slumped her way towards the house.
"Hey lil' sis', we still have some work to do today.", Big Mac called out as he saw his sister headed towards the house.
"Not now Big Mac.", Applejack replied quietly.
"But..."
"Ah said not now Big Mac!", Applejack screamed with tears in her eyes, cutting off her brother.
Big Mac recoiled from the explosiveness of her words, but he still caught a glimpse of the trail of tears rolling down her cheeks as she ran into the house. He then decided to give her some space, for it was probably for the best.
'How could she do that to me? I trusted her. I thought she was my friend. HOW COULD SHE DO THAT TO ME?!' Rainbow Dash thought angrily as she entered her home in the clouds.
She paced through the house just trying to make sense of things. She didn't want this to damage her friendship with Applejack, but she didn't care for her like that. She didn't know what to do. She wanted to go talk to her friends, but she was to embarrassed to do it. She didn't want to make the rest of her friends feel uneasy around AJ, but she desperately needed to talk to somepony.
She thought about it some more and decided that if she was going to talk to somepony it had to be Fluttershy. There was no way she would talk about it with somepony else, and there was no way she'd let something like this get in the way of her friendship with Applejack. So she flew off towards Fluttershy's cottage on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest trying to think of how she should tell her what had happened with AJ. As she flew towards Fluttershy's cottage she noticed that it was getting late and she quickly sped up so she wouldn't have to wake her friend in order to speak with her.
Finally Fluttershy's cottage came into view, and Rainbow Dash slowed down and landed with a soft thud. She trotted over to the door and began knocking.
Fluttershy cracked open the door, "Who is it?", she shyly asked while looking out the door with one eye.
"It's me Fluttershy. I need to talk to somepony I can trust." Rainbow said slightly agitated by her friend's shyness.
"Sure Rainbow Dash, come on in." Fluttershy said in her usual timid voice.
Rainbow walked into the quaint little cottage and directly into the living room, where she sat down by Fluttershy's request.
"What do you need to talk about Rainbow, if you don't mind my asking?" Fluttershy said apologetically.
"It's about Applejack, Fluttershy. She... she said she was in love with me, and then... she kissed me!" Rainbow Dash explained.
"Oh my! You mean you didn't know?" Fluttershy asked.
"No! I didn't know she felt like THAT about me!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
Fluttershy shrank back from Dash and emitted a small EEP after her outburst, but she quickly recovered.
"Oh... oh that's right.", Fluttershy said with a sudden realization, "You weren't at the spa with the rest of us last week. When you didn't show up she was devastated. We asked what was wrong, and she told us everything." Fluttershy explained.
"WHY DIDN'T ANY ONE OF YOU GUYS TELL ME?!"
"I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, but she made us all Pinkie Promise."
At which point Pinkie Pie knocked on one of Fluttershy's windows and shouted, "You broke a Pinkie Promise!"
"Oh no!", Fluttershy squealed as she cowarded on the floor with her hooves covering her face.
"Oh Fluttershy, it's just Pinkie Pie."
Rainbow Dash wasn't sure what Fluttershy said next but it sounded like, "You don't know half the things that she can do."
"What was that Fluttershy?", Rainbow Dash asked.
"N...nothing. N... nothing at all!", Fluttershy said as she began looking in every direction.
"Well what do I do about Applejack, Fluttershy? I like her as friend, but that's it."
"You should really go talk to Applejack, Rainbow Dash."
"But I'll feel really uncomfortable around her now because of what happened in the barn. Do you think, you could tell her for me?"
"I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, but Applejack needs to hear this from you."
Rainbow Dash's ears drooped a little bit as Fluttershy pointed to the door.
'Great, now she gets more assertive.' Rainbow Dash thought to herself sourly.
She walked out the door and for once, she walked to Sweet Apple Acres, but only so she could think. Her thinking was interrupted by a shrill cry screaming 'I'm sorry!' She stopped and listened but heard nothing else except for the wind, so she continued on. She decided that she wanted to let her down lightly, and apologize for the way she had acted before. As she approached the farm she could hear sobs coming from Applejack's window. She lofted up to the window and saw
Applejack lying on her bed sobbing with Granny Smith, who was trying to comfort her. Rainbow Dash didn't know why, but the sight of her friend crying like this really hurt her. Granny Smith looked up at the window and saw Rainbow Dash floating there, and she beckoned her in.
Rainbow opened the window and entered the room silently.
"Granny! She hates me now." Applejack said through her tears.
"I could never hate you, AJ." Rainbow said, with a little tenderness in her voice.
Applejack looked up to see Rainbow Dash standing by her bed with a look of concern on her face. Rainbow Dash placed her hoof on Applejack's shoulder and smiled.
Granny Smith looked at the two mares and said tenderly, "Ah'ma gonna give you two some alone time.", and she left the room.
Applejack turned her gaze back to Rainbow Dash.
"B...but Ah thought..."
"AJ, I don't care for you the same way you do for me, but I do care for you, and if you really are in love with me, then well, I'm not surprised. I am the coolest pony in Equestria."
Applejack laughed a little bit and began wiping away her tears.
"D..do you really mean that?" Applejack asked.
"Of course I do." Rainbow Dash said as she wrapped her friend up in a hug.
Applejack relished in the warmth of the hug. She wanted more, but this would have to do for now. Rainbow on the other hand had started to feel something bubbling up in her stomach. Whatever it was, it felt hot, and it was quickly moving through her entire body. She began to really enjoy the hug but then a thought popped into her head.
"So you told every one of our friends, but you decided to show me? Mind if I ask why?", Rainbow Dask inquired with a slight smile on her face.
Applejack's blush just grew redder as she explained to her friend, "Well Ah did tell you, but you said that you didn't understand, and Ah couldn't think of any other way to tell ya. Plus the hard cider didn't help at all. It just made things worse."
After admitting this to her friend, Applejack desperately attempted to hide her face in her mane like Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash saw this and gingerly moved her friend's mane out of the way while chuckling a little. For some reason Rainbow Dash found this to be very cute when Applejack did it.
"I'm sorry for the way I reacted, Applejack. I was caught off guard, I mean I wasn't really expecting that."
"It's okay, Ah guess Ah did catch ya by surprise.", Applejack said.
"Yeah you did.", Rainbow Dash said as she bursted out into laughter.
The laugher was quite contagous. Applejack was soon laughing right along with her.
Applejack stared Rainbow Dash in the eyes as she desperately asked, "Are we still friends?"
Rainbow Dash had never seen her friend's eyes quiver like this before.
She just smiled and said in a reasuring tone, "Of course."
A long semi-awkward silence fell over the room after the two had stopped talking. They could here the grandfather clock downstairs chime ten o'clock.
"I have to get going Applejack. I have to get up early tomorrow. I have some clouds to take care of."
"Why don't ya stay, fer the night Ah mean?", Applejack asked, almost in a whisper, as Rainbow
turned towards the window.
"Well... I... I guess I can stay.", Rainbow found herself saying involuntarily.
Applejack jumped out of her bed and led Rainbow Dash downstairs.
"Say, did ya eat at all today RD?", Applejack asked.
"No, but I'm to tired to eat." Rainbow Dash said with a yawn.
"Okay, but if you get hungry, we have left overs in the kitchen. Ya can sleep down here in the living room on the couch. Ah'll bring ya a blanket."
Rainbow Dash waited for her hostess to return. When she did she was carrying a blanket and pillow on her back. She laid them on the couch and turned to Rainbow Dash.
"Ah'll see ya tomorrow right?", she asked with some concern in her voice.
"Of course you will. If I finish early I'll come by and we can hang out some more."
Applejack flashed Rainbow a smile.
"Ah'd like that.", she said as she started to return to her room.
Rainbow Dash spread herself out on the couch and said quitely to herself, "Yeah, so would I."
That night Rainbow Dash's dream was frightening. She was flying around collecting lightening storm clouds. She charged at the last one as a long beam of lightening discharged from the cloud striking her wing. She began to fall from the sky. She flapped her wings furiously, but with the one being so damaged by the lightening, it was a fruitless thing to do.
She closed her eyes and openned her mouth to scream, but just as soon as she had, she felt hooves on her. She reoppened her eyes and she was on the ground being hugged by Applejack.
"Ah'll always love you RD. Ah'll never let anything bad happen to you."
Rainbow Dash openned her eyes. She was coated in sweat and breathing kind of hard. She looked over at the clock.
"I've over slept!", she exclaimed out loud.
She leapt into the air and bolted for the window. She stopped momentarily, so she could open it, and took off through it. She got to work moving the clouds to their designated zones. She finished her work very quickly, for all she could think about was getting back to Applejack for some reason.
'What are these feelings? Am I... falling for Applejack? I can't be. I'm not lesmarian, or even a little biquestrial, so why am I having these feelings?'
Rainbow Dash flew over to Sweet Apple Acres and landed after she spotted Applejack. She was sitting under an apple tree and staring at the ground. She lifted her head as she heard somepony approaching. Her expression became one of joy when she saw Rainbow Dash.
"RD! Ya came back.", Applejack said overflowing with joy.
"AJ, we need to talk.", Rainbow said as her friend was troting over to her.
Applejack's expression changed to one of concern when she heard the tone of voice Dash was using. She could tell that Dash wasn't playing around, so Applejack prepared for the worse. Applejack stopped in front of her friend.
"D..do we need to do this in private?", Applejack asked.
"Applejack ever since last night I can't get you out of my mind. You were in my dream last night, you were in all of my thoughts today, and AJ?"
"Y...yes Rainbow Da..."
Before Applejack could finish what she was saying Rainbow Dash planted a kiss on her lips. She didn't resist it at all. She had wanted this for a long, long time now, and now it was happening. Rainbow Dash broke the kiss after a few seconds.
"What was that fo..."
Applejack once again didn't get to finish her question. Rainbow Dash had planted another kiss on her, but this time it was deeper and more sensual. Rainbow Dash's tongue began to explore Applejack's mouth, sampling her flavor. It was sweet and spicy at the same time, like sugar and cinnimon, and Rainbow Dash was loving it.
Applejack felt Rainbow's tongue in her mouth and cautiously allowed her tongue to probe around Rainbow's mouth. Applejack savored the flavor she had been aching to taste. Rainbow tasted like spring rain and the first snow flakes of the winter. It was everything she had imagined it would be.
After a while Rainbow broke the kiss again and stared into Applejack's eyes. Applejack was in a state of ecstacy, but she still was able to stare back at Dash.
"What'd ya think?", Applejack asked quietly.
"It... felt... right. Like it was completely natural."
A large smile appeared on Applejack's face and she reached out and drew Dash in for a hug.
"Ah thought ya didn't like me like that?", Applejack teasingly whispered into Dash's ear.
"Yeeeaaahhh, well, I changed my mind.", Rainbow replied in a whisper as well.
"So does this mean ya want to be my special somepony, RD?"
"Yes, yes it does, AJ."